Can’t believe that we are already to Thursday this week, these days are flying by. This week seems to have been a busy one, Tuesday the students had their first Field Studies class with Giuditta. She sure is a spit fire, but a lovely person at that. I didn’t get to talk with her much on our tour of Genova, but the students all seem to really like her and she knows A LOT! She will be the instructor for their Tuesday day trips, as well she will travel with us on our longer trips – which our first one is next Friday – I can’t believe it!
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| Giuditta points out landmarks on a map as we overlook the city |
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| Nick sketching in Piazza San Matteo |
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| If all else fails, bust through the plants |
So on Tuesday we had an intro tour of Genova, it was neat to make our way through the bustling streets and hear about how the city developed into what it is today. There were a lot more people out and about compared to when we first arrived, as I believe they are all trickling in from their holidays. Apparently it is customary for Italians to take holiday from mid August until the beginning of September, which means that when we first arrived there was nothing open, except for the occasional grocery. Most small businesses and restaurants have been closed, but we are seeing them all slowly open up again. Even the major stores in Centro, Dolce & Gabanna, Louis Vuitton and Hermes were closed for holiday, just seems really weird to us money hungry Americans that stores would close down for this significant amount of time.
After our time with Giuditta, we boarded bus #36 and headed back to the villa. Cristina had dinner waiting on the stove and we all scarfed it down and pretty much crashed for the evening.
Wednesday was pretty low key, we had Italian language class and then Barbara took some of us to the cell phone store to obtain SIM cards for our phones. Afterwards Barbara and I headed to a small cafe in Castelleto for a glass of wine and to chat. It was wonderful to be able to get away from the villa for awhile and just sit, talk and people watch, she is a lovely lady and I will miss having her around then villa when she departs for Clemson next week.
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| Luckily while waiting for SIM cards you can also shop for antiques and kitchen supplies 🙂 |
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| Paulo helps us all get our SIM cards |
I am hoping tomorrow to get some homework completed so that Nick and I can have the weekend to possibly do a small day trip, but we shall see. I hope that everyone back at home is doing well, please feel free to comment on any posts or let me know if there is anything that you want to know about. I have a really hard time coming up with things to say (I know this is hard to believe for most of you). We did receive our first mail at the villa today – cards from mom and granny – although sympathy cards, they were very sweet and we greatly appreciate them thinking of us!
